Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Kick Ass (2010)

Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson)is a nerdy kid who decides to become a real life super hero after being mugged and sees a bystander who does nothing to help. He buys a funky scuba suit for his costume and decides to call himself "Kick Ass".

Kick Ass goes out on patrol and gets beat up badly by the very same guys that mugged him earlier. He ends up in the hospital where most of his bones have been fixed with metal plates. He also has damaged most of his nerve endings and this has made him unable to feel most pain.

When he goes back to school, he finds that a girl, Katie (Lyndsy Fonseca), that he is in love with thinks that he is gay since he is so nice and sensitive. He goes along with it to be around her and they spend a lot of time together having sleepovers and applying self tanner.

Dave gets back into his super hero mode and beats up some guys that are chasing after someone. The incident is caught on tape and put on YouTube and becomes an instant sensation. All of a sudden Kick Ass is a hot merchandise property complete with his own MySpace page. When Dave finds out that Katie is being bothered by a drug dealer when she volunteers at the needle exchange. Kick Ass goes over to the dealers house and finds himself in a precarious situation until "Hit Girl" (Chloe Grace Moretz) appears. This 11 year old kills everyone in interesting ways (It kind of has a "Kill Bill" flavor) then leaves with her father "Big Daddy" (Nicolas Cage). Big Daddy is a former cop named Damon Macready that was framed for drugs by a kingpin named Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong). While he was in prison his wife died while having his daughter Mindy who was then taken care of by his former police partner. When Macready got out of prison he began training his little girl all things lethal.

D'Amico thinks that Kick Ass is the one messing up his business by killing off his men when it is actually Big Daddy. They find this out when D'Amico's son Chris(Christopher Mintz-Plasse) decides to become "Red Mist" to try to flush out Kick Ass. When Red Mist takes Kick Ass to the lumberyard where the bad guys hang out, they find that it is on fire and all of the men are dead. Thanks to a nanny cam from Chris' baby days, they also see that it is Big Daddy, dressed a bit like Batman, that is the one doing the killing.

Dave decides to quit being Kick Ass because of the danger. However, checking his My Space he finds that Red Mist is trying to get a hold of him in a bid to flush out big Daddy. Kick Ass notifies Big Daddy that he needs help and they go to a safe house where the bad guys shoot Hit Girl and take Big Daddy and Kick Ass. Hit Girl saves the day, but not before big Daddy sustains lethal burns. Dave tries to get Hit Girl to stop, but she must avenge her fathers death and finish what he started.

This film is based on a comic of the same name and the movie rights were sold even before the first issue was published. Brad Pitt is a producer of this movie.

The most amusing parts of this movie were the parts with "Hit Girl" and her father. While it seems strange to find an 11 year old participating in such violence and some profanity it was still pretty funny. The rest of the movie was pretty good, but not what I would call great. While much was made of Hit Girls language, she dropped a couple of F words a C word and a couple of other small ones, they made it seem like there was an endless stream of profanity. I don't see what the big deal was about. However, I would like to applaud (sarcastically), the parental skills of the parents that brought their what looked like 5 and 6 year old kids to this R rated violent movie. What is wrong with people?

Chloe Grace Moretz and Nicolas Cage both did a good job.

Rated R. I give this movie THREE STARS.

Armored (2009)


This movie begins as Ty Hackett (Columbus Short) is just finishing up his probationary period as a member of an armored car team that also includes Ty's godfather Mike (Matt Dillon), Baines (Laurence Fishburne), Quinn (Jean Reno), Dobbs (Skeet Ulrich) and Palmer (Amaury Nolasco).

Ty is a veteran and Silver Star recipient whose parents both recently died and now is responsible for his teenage brother Jimmy (Andre Kinner) who is quickly approaching delinquent status. To top it off, he is about to lose the family home due to two mortgages and the medical bills from his parents.

On the last day of his probationary period, his fellow employees play a "joke" on him by making like they are being robbed by some men in a van. Well, it turns out that the "robbery" was basically a dry run for a robbery that they themselves want to pull off. It turns out that they will be getting new trucks that will be tracked by GPS and if they are going to pull this job, they need to do it now. Amazingly this coincides with a huge shipment of 42 million dollars from the federal reserve.

At first Ty wants nothing to do with this when Mike tells him about it, but when he goes home a child welfare person is there talking about putting Jimmy in foster care. Ty decides to do it as long as no one gets hurt. Famous last words.

When the guys pick up the money from the federal reserve, they have an hour to check back in with the armored security company. They drive the trucks to an abandoned mill, unload the money and hide it. Just as they are about to leave, they spot a homeless man who saw everything and chase him down. Baines shoots him and when Ty tries to help the man, Mike kills the man. Now the guys begin to argue about what to do. Ty runs to one of the trucks and tries to get away, but has no luck. He hides in the truck which also has 21 Million still in it. The other guys decide to try to take the hinges off the truck to get to the money and Ty. The truck alarm goes off alerting a local deputy (Milo Ventimiglia) that there might be something going on at the abandoned mill. He goes over to take a look and gets shot. while the guys are arguing about what to do, Ty grabs the deputy and drags him into the truck.

The guys continue to try to get the hinges off the truck. Ty convinces Dobbs to help him and when Dobbs gets caught by the others, he pays for it. Ty finds that there is a removable floor plate in the truck and takes the deputies radio up to the roof to see if he can get reception. When he comes back, he finds that the guys have grabbed his brother from home to try to get Ty out of the truck. It works. However, when the remaining guys try to get the money, it explodes thanks to the booby trap that Ty set. Ty tries to run away and is chased by Mike in one of the trucks. It doesn not end well for Mike.

In the end the deputy tells how Ty helped him out and the boss at Eagle (Fred Ward) mentions that there is talk of a reward.

This has got to be one of the most predictable movies that I have seen in a long time. Super thin plot, kind of boring actually. There is a lot of star power here, but it wasn't used.

Rated PG-13. 85 Minutes. I give this movie TWO AND ONE QUARTER STARS.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)


In 2010 three high school friends, Adam (John Cusack)newly divorced, Nick (Craig Robinson) a guy in a dead end job with a cheating wife and Lou (Rob Corddry) a partier way past his expiration date, get together and decide to go to a resort that holds some of their best memories when one of them tries to commit suicide. Destination...The Kodiak Valley Ski Resort. Adam's nephew Jacob (Clark Duke), who lives in Adams basement, goes along for the ride.

The ski resort has fallen apart and after an evening of drunken socializing in the outdoor hot tub, awaken to find themselves transported back to "Winterfest 86" at the resort. At first they think that it is some sort of retro weekend as everyone is wearing 80's clothes and Poison (remember Ron, Every rose has it's thorn!) is playing in town, but soon find that they have indeed gone back in time. They discover that while they all look the same, when they look in the mirror, they look like their young selves except for Jacob who hadn't been born yet.

To get back to 2010 they decide that they must do everything in the exact same way thit it occurred in 1986. This means that Adam must break up with his girlfriend, his sister conceived Jacob here, Lou was beat up several times by the local ski patrol jerk, Nick had a really bad performance with his band at an open mic event and Phil the bellop (Crispin Glover) lost his arm in some kind of accident.

They go along with trying to keep everything the same, but then think it might be good to change a few things her and there. However, when Jacob begins to flicker in and out, they realize that he was conceived while they were there and need to stick to the plan. They do end up changing a few things and find out who Jacob's father is.

Back at the hot tub, one of the guys decides to stay in 1986 to set a few things straight as well as make some money because he knows the outcome of future events.

I won't tell what happens when the guys re-appear in 2010.

This film was pretty good. Compared to the same genre of movies (sophmoric humor) I liked it better than most (I really liked "The Hangover"). The rest of the movie audience was howling at everything, so they seemed to think that it was a great movie! Watch for Chevy Chase as a hot tub repairman. I still love John Cusack.

Rated R. 100 Minutes. I give this movie THREE STARS.

The Fourth Kind (2009)


This movie is supposed to be about actual events that occurred in Nome Alaska in October of 2000.

Dr. Abigail Tyler (the real one), a psychologist, is being interviewed about these events and the movie mixes in actual footage with the film often using a split screen with the actual footage along with the filmed footage.

Dr. Tyler's husband was recently murdered and she is seeing another therapist, Dr. Campos (Elias Koteas), to help her deal with it. Her daughter Ashley (around 6) has become blind from the trauma, she also has a son that is about 12.

Dr. Tyler (Milla Jovovich) returns to Nome and gets back to work interviewing her own patients. She finds that she is hearing the same stories over and over. Her patients seem to be having difficulty sleeping and they see a white owl outside their window with some of them remembering a white owl from their childhoods. She decides to put one of her patients under hypnosis to ask them about it. The patient, Tommy, gets all upset about something he has seen and jumps off the couch. Dr. Tyler wakes him up and he won't tell her what he saw. Later that night, he holds his family hostage and wants to talk to Dr. Tyler. He says that he must shoot his family because of what he had seen and begins to talk in a strange language then proceeds to murder his family as well as kill himself. The sheriff (Will Patton) thinks that something that Dr. Tyler did when she hypnotized Tommy is what caused this.

Dr. Campos flies to Nome from Anchorage to see Dr. Tyler and sits in while she hypnotizes Scott, another patient. Scott goes under, freaks out, wakes up then throws up. After Scott leaves, Dr. Tyler tries to talk to Dr. Campos about alien abduction, the supposed "Fourth Kind" of contact with aliens. As they are about to leave the office, her secretary gives her a tape that she was transcribing. On the tape is Dr. Tyler screaming and a strange voice talking in another language. Dr. Tyler goes home to try and remember what happened. She contacts a man, Dr. Odsumani (Hakeem Kae-Kazim) that specializes in old languages and he says that it is an ancient language called Sumerian. He listens to the tapes and recognizes the words "examine" and "destroy". Dr. Tyler gets a call from Scott's wife saying that Scott wants to be hypnotized again. He begins levitating off the bed and screaming in Sumerian. Scott's neck is broken at the end of the session and the sheriff again blames Dr. Tyler and wants to arrest her, but she talks him out of it and he places a deputy outside of her house. While he is there, he sees a large bright light over the Tyler home and when the police go into the house, Dr. Tyler's daughter Ashley is missing. The sheriff thinks that there is something wrong with Dr. Tyler and takes her son out of her custody.

Dr. Tyler gets hypnotized by Dr. Campos and Dr. Odusami in the hopes that she may be able to find out what happened to her daughter. When she goes under, she freaks out and begins speaking in Sumerian. Something happens in the room and all three people are gone. Dr. Tyler wakes up in the hospital with a neck brace on and she tells Sheriff August that they were all abducted. Sheriff August says that her husband was not murdered, that he committed suicide and Dr. Tyler says that there was no way that he would have done that but decides that she must have suppressed the memory of the event.

The interview ends and it shows that Dr. Tyler is in a wheelchair. Ashley is never found and she has no contact with her son who still blames her for Ashley's disappearance.

This was pretty bad. The supposed "real" footage looked like it was filmed by bad actors. The split screen thing was annoying.

Rated PG-13. 98 Minutes. I give this movie ONE AND ONE HALF STARS.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

The Birds (1963)

This review is in honor of my cockatiel "Bird" who recently went to that huge flock in the sky. He used to love MTV and Guns N Roses, He especially enjoyed "Welcome to the Jungle". He was with me for almost 30 years and his screeching will be missed.

This movie, directed by the amazing Alfred Hitchcock, was based on a short novel by Daphne du Maurier.

Melanie Daniels(Tippi Hedren) meets Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) in San Francisco while picking up a bird for her aunt at a pet shop. Melanie pretends to work at the shop and Mitch pretends to think that she does until he lets her know that he sees through her ruse. I think that the expensive dress gave her away as her father owns a large local newspaper. Mitch is there to order some lovebirds for his sister Cathy who is having a birthday. Melanie and Mitch part, but Melanie knows what she wants and finds out what his address is and decides to deliver the lovebirds herself.

Mitch lives in a town north of San Francisco called Bodega Bay where the movie was actually filmed. When she gets into town, she decides to take a motorboat across the harbor to surprise Mitch. She looked really good doing it in her fancy coat, hair and pumps. She leaves the birds at the house and drives across the harbor again although Mitch sees her and drives around the harbor to meet her in his car. While she is crossing the harbor in the boat, a seagull dive bombs her leaving her with a bit of a bloody forehead.

Over the next few days, Melanie meets some of the other people in Mitch's life including Mitch's slightly controlling mother Lydia (Jessica Tandy), his 11 year old sister Cathy (Veronica Cartwright) and his former girlfriend and Cathy's teacher Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette).

The bird attacks escalate beginning with a bird killing itself by slamming into Annie's front door where Melanie is spending the night (how weird is that, not the bird dying but her staying at her crush's old girlfriend house. What, no hotel?). The birds then attack a group of children that attend Cathy's birthday party at Mitch's house. The famous schoolyard scene then occurs with the attack of crows on the schoolchildren. After that attack, Melanie goes to a bar to call her father and finds that several other attacks have happened. People are starting to become hysterical with a woman accusing Melanie of being the catalyst since this didn't start happening until Melanie showed up. Some people run outside and the birds begin a huge attack that includes the famous phone booth scene where Melanie is trapped inside the booth.

Mitch comes and picks up Melanie and they go to pick up Cathy from Annie's house and find Annie dead with Cathy crying inside. They go to Mitch's house and barricade themselves inside. There is another attack as the birds fly in through the fireplace. Things calm down and everyone goes to sleep. They later hear something upstairs and find that the birds have broken through the roof. Melanie is attacked and they manage to get her out of the room, but must take her to the hospital. Everyone calmly goes out to the car as they are surrounded by birds everywhere...just watching them.

This movie is awesome and way ahead of it's time.

Rated PG-13. 120 Minutes. I give this film FOUR AND ONE HALF STARS.

There was an instance in Capitola where some strange bird activity occurred. Apparently Hitchcock used to have a home in Scotts Valley and he requested a copy of the article from the Santa Cruz Sentinal be sent to him as "research material for his latest thriller". Read about it here www.santacruzpl.org/history/articles/183/

Brian and I went to Bodega Bay years ago and it was fun to drive along the exact routes that you see in the movie. We even sat in front of the schoolyard where the crow attacks occurred. I hate crows. We also saw this movie screened at the Stanford Theater a few years back and got to see Tippi Hedren who did a Q & A in between movies. She was lovely! She is also the mother of Melanie Griffith and runs a refuge for big cats (lions and tigers).

Keep an eye out for a quick appearance of Hitchcock when Melanie goes into the pet shop at the beginning of the movie. Alfie liked to make small cameo appearances in his films. Here is his cameo in "The Birds".

Thursday, April 1, 2010

An Education (2008)


This film was actually released at Sundance in 2008 but was not released into theaters until 2009. It was nominated for best picture in 2010.

This film is based in 1961 London and stars newcomer Carey Mulligan as Jenny, a girl with aspirations of attending Oxford.

Jenny meets David (Peter Sarsgaard) after concert practice (she plays the cello) and he offers her a ride home as it is raining. He runs into her in town and asks her to a concert that her strict father (Alfred Molina) somehow allows her to attend. Here Jenny meets David's business partner Danny (Dominic Cooper) and his girlfriend Helen (Rosamund Pike) at the classical music concert. They have a late supper at a jazz club and Jenny is mesmerized by the life they lead. Before you know it, Jenny's parents allow her to take an overnight trip with David under the guise of meeting the author C.S. Lewis.

It is here that Jenny learns that David makes his money by stealing and cons. He and Danny go into homes for sale and steal art. David also moves a black family into neighborhoods to scare old ladies into selling their homes to him cheaply then re-selling them. At first Jenny is angry, but has become so used to their life of nice restaurants and jazz clubs that she chooses to overlook the bad stuff, she even goes to Paris with him. David soon proposes, Jenny accepts then drops out of school figuring that she would not need school anymore. One of her teachers, Miss Stubbs (Olivia Williams) as well as the headmistress of the school (Emma Thompson) try to speak to her about her choices, but to no avail.

On the way to dinner with her parents and David, Jenny comes across some mail in the car that shows that David is actually married. She demands that he take her home and tell her parents that he is married. He drives away like the coward he is.

It is now too late to take the exams necessary to get in to Oxford and the headmistress of her old school will not allow her to take the year over. she turns to her old teacher Miss Stubbs who helps her study for her exams and she is accepted.

Carey Mulligan is currently filming the new "Wall Street" movie with Shia LeBeouf who is also rumored to be her boyfriend. You can see Rosamund Pike in "Pride and Prejudice" with Keira Knightley, one of my favorite romantical type movies.

I thought this movie was good, not boring like I though it would be, although I think that it is more of a girl movie. Oscar worthy? Maybe.

Rated PG-13. 95 Minutes. I give this movie FOUR STARS.